Labour members quitting over Jeremy Corbyn's stance on Brexit, records show

Written by David Singleton on 3 March 2017 in Diary

Diary

Corbyn is accused of having 'kowtowed to the leavers’ mandate and to the noisy triumphalism of the anti-European press'.

How is Jeremy Corbyn doing with all of those Labour supporters who wanted the UK to remain in the European Union?

After the Labour leader whipped his MPs to support the article 50 bill, politics professor John Curtice suggested that Corbyn had made a mighty miscalculation.

"Labour seems to have forgotten (or not realised) that most of those who voted Labour in 2015 – including those living in Labour seats in the north and the Midlands – backed remain,” he wrote in The Guardian last week.

“The party is thus at greater risk of losing votes to the pro-remain Liberal Democrats than to pro-Brexit Ukip.”

In today’s paper, Guardian associate editor Matin Kettle strikes the same notes, suggesting that the Labour leadership has alienated many left-leaning Remainers by waving through Theresa May’s hard Brexit.

"Instead of standing up as much as possible for Britain’s post-Brexit place in Europe, Labour has increasingly kowtowed to the leavers’ mandate and to the noisy triumphalism of the anti-European press…